Version History
Current published version
Today's Business, Issue 1. pp. 116-117. Original floor committee resolution.
No later published versions have been added.
Official Resolution Source Text
Resolution: 6-08
Canonical number: 6-08
Committee: Pastoral Ministry and Seminaries
Source: Today's Business, Issue 1
Printed pages: pp. 116-117
PDF pages: 116-117
Version: original, current-published-proposal
Source reference: Issue 1, pp. 116-117
Line numbers follow Today's Business, Issue 1, with numbering reset on each printed page, so delegates can compare this page with the official PDF.
Page 116
- To Amend Bylaw 2.13.1 to Clarify Terminology
- for Specific Ministry Pastor Mentorship and Oversight
- RESOLUTION 6-08
- Overture 6-09, 45 (CW, 366–67, 391–92)
- Rationale
- In 1998 the Synod added to its bylaws a set of definitions, now designated as section 1.2 “Definition of Terms.” Two
- important definitions are those of supervision and oversight. In the Synod’s Bylaws, outside of “ecclesiastical supervision,”
Page 117
- the term “supervision” means “to have authority over, to direct actions, to control activities” (Bylaw 1.2.1 [u]). “Oversight”
- means “to monitor; to make inquiry and receive a response thereto; to make suggestions; to bring concerns to the attention
- of a higher authority” (Bylaw 1.2.1 [p]). In 1998 it proved necessary, for example, to make it clear that the Synod’s Board
- of Directors cannot control the activities of the various synodwide corporate entities or issue binding directives to their
- boards. With respect to synodwide corporate entities, it has oversight.
- When the Synod established its Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program almost a decade later, via 2007 Res. 5-01B, it
- adopted bylaws providing that a specific ministry pastor serves under the supervision (not specifically termed
- “ecclesiastical supervision”) of his district president and another pastor who is not a specific ministry pastor. The next
- sentence refers again to the specific ministry pastor being under supervision of another pastor, who in some instances may
- be a neighboring Synod pastor who has no call to the church served by the specific ministry pastor. The definition of
- supervision (“to have authority over, to direct actions, to control activities”) that had been placed into the Bylaws largely
- to clarify the spheres of authority for various governing boards does not apply to the relationship between a specific
- ministry pastor and his district president. Nor does it necessarily apply to the specific ministry pastor’s relationship with
- the non-specific ministry pastor who oversees him. This inapt use of defined terms, along with its potential for introducing
- confusion, was noted in CCM Op. 23-3017, “Specific Ministry Pastor Supervision of Commissioned Ministers,” and
- referred to the Commission on Handbook for improvement.
- The word oversight, as defined in the Bylaws, seems much more fitting for the efforts of non-specific ministry pastors
- who work with all specific ministry pastors. In the revision below, this term is paired with another, mentorship. Current
- nomenclature within the SMP program speaks of specific ministry pastors and their “mentors.” Together, the two words
- account for both the monitoring and the nurturing services that designated non-specific ministry pastors render to specific
- ministry pastors.
- Therefore be it
- Resolved, That Bylaw 2.13.1 be amended as follows:
- PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING
- Specific Ministry Pastor Status and Limitations
- 2.13.1 A “specific ministry pastor” is a minister of religion—ordained who has completed the requirements for
- service as a specific ministry pastor and has been examined by one of the Synod’s seminaries, has received
- a regular call, and has been placed by the Council of Presidents into a specific Word and Sacrament ministry
- context. He is eligible to serve only in that specific ministry context for which he has been trained and may
- not be offered or accept a call for ministry for which he has not been certified as determined by his district
- president. He shall serve under the ecclesiastical supervision of his district president and under the oversight
- and mentorship of another pastor who is not a specific ministry pastor.
- (a) Because he is under supervisionthe oversight of another pastor and because a specific ministry
- pastor’s theological education has been formed in part by and for a specific ministry context, he may not
- be placed or called into ecclesiastical roles that exercise pastoral oversight outside the context of his call.
- (b) A specific ministry pastor is not eligible to
- (1) serve as a voting delegate to a national convention of the Synod—but may serve as an advisory
- delegate to national conventions and as a pastoral delegate to district conventions;
- (2) hold any elected or appointed office on the district or national Synod level that is assigned by
- the Bylaws of the Synod to “a pastor” or “an ordained minister” (although specific ministry pastors
- may serve in all other capacities, especially representing the ministerial contexts in which they
- serve);
- (3) supervise vicars; or
- (4) serve as a circuit visitor.
- (c) The ministers of religion—ordained records maintained by district presidents as well as the official
- membership roster of the Synod shall distinguish between specific ministry pastors and other pastors.
